The Hobbit: Bilbo's Hero Journey

Welcome to Mr. Grant's Hobbit Wiki. Choose any five of the activities listed below to add to this Wiki. You MUST find your Hobbit or Elf name IN ADDITION to these other activities.

J.R.R. Tolkien



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Tolkien was the author of The Hobbit. He also wrote the three books that make up The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, among others. Find a site that provides a biographical sketch of Tolkien's life and create a link to it. Instead of this, you can also find a site that reviews or gives an overview of one of his other books - NOT Lord of the Rings. Provide an image related to the book. You could even make the image the link. Be sure to list your name beside your link.

Hobbits

Hobbits are small, clever, quiet folk. Bilbo Baggins thinks he is like the other hobbits of Hobbiton, but discovers, after a visit from Gandalf and the 13 dwarves, that he is quite different. List one fact about hobbits below, either that the book tells us or that you have found online, and tell whether Bilbo fits this description or not. Be sure to put your name (hobbit name or elf name) beside your fact.


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Click on the round door to discover your Hobbit name or your Elf name.

Once you discover your name type it next to your human name below. Be sure to specify whether it is a Hobbit name or an Elf name.
We will begin using these names in class once all names are in.
Mr. Grant - Fosco Bolger of Newbury

Wizards

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Wizards in Tolkien's Middle Earth are quite different from other Fantasy wizards. They are very similar to angels in a way. This is not, however, made clear in The Hobbit.
Here is one link to a site about wizards. Either read over it and list one fact about wizards below (be sure to list your hobbit/elf name beside your fact) OR find and post another wizard site link.


Dwarves

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Like so many of the fantasy creatures that Tolkien employs, he creates, over the entirety of his works, a complex history for the Dwarves of his stories. There are, in Tolkien's Middle-Earth, several races of Dwarves: Longbeards, Firebeards, Broadbeams, Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks, and Stonefoots. Find a site that gives a history of any of these particular races and create a link to it, along with a brief, one sentence description of the race. Provide an image if available.


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Most of the Elves in Tolkien's world are tall, fair creatures. We learn in chapter 8 that the wood elves are somewhat of an exception to this rule. Look up depictions of Tolkien's elves and post pictures below. Be sure to list your name beside your picture.


Also, did you know that one reason that Tolkien wrote his books was so that he could invent new languages?! One of the languages that he created was Elvish. To check out how the language is constructed, and what people are doing today to add to it, check out this site. For extra credit, write one sentence in Elvish and provide an English translation.

Dragons

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Dragons exist in literature from many, many, many, many cultures. They are even mentioned in the Bible. Tolkien often, in The Hobbit, calls Smaug - the dragon in the story - a worm. Obviously he is not talking about the Night Crawlers that we fish with. There are several dragon options for you. You can look up sites that deal with dragons by culture. For example, find something about the Roman idea of a dragon, and provide a link and an image. Just to repeat: there are many cultures that have a dragon tradition, so there are lots of things you could look up. Aside from this, you can trace the word "worm" and find out how it relates to dragons OR find other words that relate to dragons and write a brief etymology (word family tree) of the word.


Maps

Bilbo is very interested in maps. J.R.R. Tolkien was also very interested in map-making.

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Name any location that is important to the story (there are lots of them). Look up that place with a Google search or similar search engine. Create a link below to any site focused on that place that you think is interesting. Be sure to put your name beside your link.




Runes

Runes were originally a Norse alphabet, created - according to myth - by the god Odin. Tolkien, in his interest in ancient languages and his desire to create new languages, adopted the Runic alphabet as the alphabet of the Dwarves in hi Middle Earth. Below is a chart relating Runic sound associations to common English sounds.

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Use the above chart to write your name in Runes in Paint or Photoshop. Attach it below. For extra credit, write your Hobbit name or Elf name in Runes along with your human name.



Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey Concept

The Hero's Journey is a literary/psychological paradigm suggested by the famous anthropologist Joseph Campbell. We have covered much of this in class. Choose any of the elements of the Hero's Journey chart and tell how Bilbo's journey fits into that model. If you choose the Hero Journey activity that will be provided in class, you can add it here (i.e. take a picture of your finished product and upload it) for extra credit.
chloe-the supernatural aid would be the ring that bilbo found.

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